Things Are Always Changing
by hpfan4lf
Summary: Hermione's life as a witch is over, thanks to her parents. Years later, will someone she once knew change her outlook on her own life? An unusual DracoHermione romance.
1. Chapter 1: I Think I'm Happy

**Title: Things Are Always Changing**

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**Summary:** Hermione's life as a witch is over, thanks to her parents. Years later, will someone she once knew change her outlook on her own life? An unusual Draco/Hermione romance.

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**Chapter One: I Think I'm Happy**

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**IMPORTANT: THIS STORY DOES NOT WORK WITH HARRY POTTER BOOK SIX, SO I AM PRETENDING LIKE IT WAS NEVER WRITTEN.**

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"No," Hermione said, backing up to the wall for support, her eyes as wide as galleons. "You can't."

"We're your parents," Mrs. Granger said firmly. "Yes, we can. Right, honey?" She added, elbowing her husband in the ribs.

"Yes, exactly," he said, a little flustered. To be honest, he wasn't sure if his wife was making the right decision. But he wanted to protect his little girl, and he wasn't sure if he trusted that tall, lanky, redheaded boy to do it.

"But they need me! Don't you understand? This is not just what I _want! _The whole bloody _world _depends on me! Harry and Ron really, really need me! The Dark Lord is hunting down Harry, my best friend who I help on a regular basis. You know, the Dark Lord, the madman who is destroying the entirety of Europe right now?" Hermione was practically reduced to tears now; the shock was slowly starting to wear off.

"Don't you think you're being a bit overdramatic?" Hermione's mother asked. "We just want to keep you safe. This amount of stress really isn't good for a girl your age. And you're just putting this stress on yourself. Harry and Ron, whoever they are, can do just fine without you."

Hermione just slid down the wall in disbelief, burrowing her face into the palms of her hands. Her parents were literally _forcing_ her to leave the wizarding world. For Good. They were making her snap her wand and live among the muggles. She had to sever all contact with any magical people and just pretend like the whole world of magic never existed. She guessed her parents would never speak about magic again, hoping that Hermione would just think that all of it was a dream from a storybook. They wanted her to just wipe away five years of her life. Hermione wanted to laugh and cry at the same time at how miserable and laughably impossible the idea was.

Right now what she really wanted to do was to burn the entire _Daily Prophet _building to the ground. Her parents had taken out a subscription to that newspaper, and that pretty much marked the end of her life as a witch. They read the article that "You-Know-Who" was back, and mentioned all of the horrible deaths and the destruction that marked his first rise to power. Of course, they were just obligated to mention that Harry Potter was responsible for the downfall of You-Know-Who almost sixteen years ago, and that the Dark Lord was probably still after Harry's blood. Well, Hermione's parents had met Harry and knew that Harry was one of Hermione's best friends. Mrs. Granger wanted to know if Hermione was in any trouble by association with Mr. Boy-Who-Lived, so she sent a concerned letter to Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster.

That was second atop Hermione Granger's wish list. She wanted to kill Professor Dumbledore. Okay, Hermione knew she should have told her parents about He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and her adventures at Hogwarts, but she was afraid of their reaction. She had no idea, however, that it would be this bad.

Well, Dumbledore wrote her a letter that chronicled everything Hermione hadn't told her parents over the past five years, apologizing profusely and saying that he was so sure that Hermione was possessed with such honesty and integrity that she would of course tell her own parents what she had gotten herself onto the most evil and powerful wizard in the world's "Top Ten People to Murder First" list. Needless to say, after that letter, the gig was up for Hermione. The whole story came tumbling out and _this _was her parents' reaction.

Hermione sobbed as she imagined Harry and Ron: September first on the Hogwarts Express, checking all the compartments down the train for a bushy-haired girl that they loved like a sister.

Now, it was the day after she had come home from her fifth year at Hogwarts, the day Hermione remembered as her last day as a witch. Hermione realized tears were streaming down her face, and her parents were still standing in front of her.

"Get out," she said firmly. When her parents just stood there and looked sadly down at her, she lost her temper and decided to continue. "Didn't you hear me! GET OUT OF MY ROOM!" Mr. and Mrs. Granger left fairly quickly, leaving her to herself.

_I'll hex them good, _Hermione suddenly thought. _Then I'll go take the Knight Bus to the Burrow in Ottery St. Catchpole. Oh, I wish I could apparate. _She fished in her pocket for her wand, and her mouth fell open when she couldn't find it. _Mum and Dad, they took it from me when they hugged me at King's Cross. Stupid, stupid, stupid Hermione..._

Hermione swore to herself that once she was eighteen and her parents did not have any legal hold on her, she would return to the wizarding world. This was her only comfort as she settled back into her life as a muggle.

But Hermione did not. In the two years from when she was sixteen to when she was eighteen, she realized that she was happy. She had created a life as a muggle, and didn't really want to go back. She went to culinary school and became an amazing chef, and then started her own little restaurant where the food was the best quality bought and prepared. The restaurant was also _very _pricey. You needed to call a month ahead and reserve tables, and Hermione was the _only _chef, and she had her own gigantic kitchen.

She decided she was perfectly content, and she didn't want to return to the world where her life was constantly on the line.

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(A/N: This story just popped into my head and wouldn't leave me alone. It's the strangest thing, I just couldn't stop thinking about it until I got it out. All the other stories I've tried to write were calculated and planned, but this one just hit me like a freight train. Has that ever happened to any of you?

Rating is T for now, but might go up to M later, I don't know.)


	2. Chapter 2: Saved By My Worst Enemy

**Title: Things Are Always Changing

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**

**Summary:** Hermione's life as a witch is over, thanks to her parents. Years later, will someone she once knew change her outlook on her own life? An unusual Draco/Hermione romance.

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**Chapter Two: Saved By My Worst Enemy

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Draco Malfoy was a Death Eater. To be perfectly honest, he didn't know whether to rejoice or be embarrassed by that fact. But he was proud that he had probably picked the winning side. That little runt Potter never stood a chance.

The Death Eaters had just performed a spectacularly successful raid on a building that held substantial written plans that the Light was planning to pursue. Now they were going to celebrate. How, you may ask? By torturing and killing muggles.

Frankly, Draco Malfoy didn't care for muggles at all. But the truth was, try as he might, he just couldn't bring himself to hate them in cold blood. They never actually did anything wrong, did they?

Well, the raid was over, and the Death Eaters were going to a little muggle restaurant in London. They were planning to burn it down. That is, after they had a few drinks and some good food.

Draco sat down at the table and had an ale with some sort of appetizer. After a few minutes he realized he sort of had to go to the bathroom, and he wanted to get away from Avery, who was pestering Malfoy to pay Avery back the money Avery let him borrow. He stood up and went looking for said bathroom. He had no idea how a muggle bathroom was labeled, but he went through a door that was not labeled at all as he saw Avery get up to find him.

He realized that this was probably the kitchen. The first thing he saw was a fairly tall, slender girl with glossy brown hair that had her back to him, using a knife to slice something.

He heard some sort of music with a steady beat playing. He noticed she was swinging her hips around in time to the music, and she was faintly singing the chorus:

_I'm on tonight you know my hips don't lie _

_And I'm starting to feel it's right_

_The attraction, the tension_

_Don't you see, baby this is perfection._

Draco realized he was being turned on slightly by this.

"I know someone's there," the girl's soft voice rang out. Draco immediately panicked. _What? This girl is a muggle! She can't sense people's presence like the Dark Lord can!_

"I-I'll just be le-leaving," Draco said. Damn his voice for stuttering! But as he finished uttering those words, the girl spun around. He took in her huge chocolate eyes and full lips.

"Malfoy?" Draco was pretty confused. Who was this girl, and how did she know him? He decided he needed to calm down and maybe get in a little bit of flirting. She would be dying soon anyways.

"Now how do you know my name while I am completely lost on yours?" He asked, visibly relaxing and putting his old smug expression back on.

"I can't believe you don't recognize me...guess it's the hair," she said, muttering the last part so it was barely audible.

"Sorry? Didn't catch that last bit," he said, eyes dancing. He was fairly sure he had never met this muggle before; she probably had just seen his face in a newspaper or something. His family was pretty famous in the muggle world, too.

"So what is your name?" Draco finally asked. She clearly hesitated.

"Rebecca Smith," she said. Draco had taken Legilimency lessons from the Dark Lord himself. That was clearly a lie.

"Are you sure about that?" Draco questioned, eyes narrowed. Whatever, the muggle probably was an escaped convict or something. Figures.

And it was then that Draco smelled it. The telltale smoke. All of a sudden, he realized he didn't want to let this little muggle die, but he wasn't sure why. But Malfoy always trusted his intuition, so he grabbed her arm and side-along apparated her to the entrance hall of the Malfoy Manor.

"I can't believe my worst enemy just saved my life," she whispered, just barely loud enough for him to hear. Then she fainted.

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(A/N: So what do you think? )


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